Haunted
by rachael-green-bakura
Summary: After Beyond Birthday is killed by Kira, L can't stop thinking about him. Not intended to be yaoi, but if you wish to interpret it as such. Songfic to Haunted by Kelly Clarkson. Character death. Spoilers of L's name and up to episode 25, chapter 56.


I am back from my writing Hiatus! This wasn't meant to be yaoi, but if you want to interpret it as such, I suppose it could work as well. The quote said in this fic are exact quotes from the dub, in case you were wondering. I normally don't like dubs, but L's voice is like liquid sex.

I do not own Death Note in any way, shape, or form. All credit goes to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.

* * *

L crouched on his chair in front of his laptop, observing the Interpol meeting room via webcam as the world meeting went on. Fifty-two criminals had been reported dead from heart attacks. The world's greatest detective had taken an interest in the case out of sheer curiosity of how this murderer, christened Kira by the public, was killing people.

_Louder, louder, the voices in my head._

_Whispers taunting, all the things you said._

"At any rate, I would like to set up the investigation headquarters in Japan," L concluded before killing the connection. Yes, he was 99% sure that Japan was where Kira was currently located. He would have to wait for the list to know for certain though.

_Faster the days go by and I'm still,_

_Stuck in this moment of wanting you here._

Watari would be sending him a list with the names of every confirmed criminal who had died of a mysterious heart attack as soon as the meeting was over. Having put in his two cents, there was no reason for L to crouch in front of a laptop until the meeting was over for God knows how much longer. He hopped off his chair and wandered to the mini-fridge in his hotel room.

_Time, in the blink of an eye._

_You held my hand, you held me tight._

Pulling out a piece of cake, he walked back over to his chair and sat on it in his regular position. Staring at the screen with his dark-rimmed eyes, he pulled up one of the many Kira worship websites popping up everywhere. There was a good chance Kira was among his own fanbase. He observed it in mild disgust until his laptop pinged and Watari's old English font W appeared on the screen before the list of dead criminals came up in a new window.

_Now you're gone and I'm still crying._

_Shocked, broken, I'm dying inside._

As L scanned the list of names and their details of death, he found that his theory had been right. While many of the criminals were world know, particularly Middle Eastern leaders, a great many of them were Japanese. He scanned the list until a single name near the end of the list caught his eye and made his blood run cold.

_Where are you? I need you!_

_Don't leave me here on my own!_

L didn't know why he was shocked. He realized he wasn't breathing and took a deep, calming breath. He looked down at his knees and pushed away his half-eaten cake. He should've seen it coming. But seeing it written there in neat Calibri font was overwhelming. _Beyond Birthday. Age: 23. Clutched his chest, exhibiting signs of distress, before relaxing and laughing. Died of a heart attack with a smile on his face._

_Speak to me! Be near me!_

_I can't survive unless I know you're with me!_

Beyond Birthday. B. The most brilliant successor L had ever trained. And now he was gone. L's body felt numb. He gripped his knees tightly to stop his hands shaking. Why was he reacting like this? L was normally void of emotion. And B wasn't anything to him anymore.

_Shadows linger,_

_Only to my eye._

B is a murderer. That's what L told himself over and over again as he buried his face in his knees and wrapped his trembling arms around them. He didn't cry. He kept telling himself that B was a murderer, and anything they used to have had gone with A's death. Unfortunately, L was a liar.

_I see you, I feel you. _

_Don't leave my side._

He had always been on good terms with B. At the Wammy House the two of them had been the closest thing to friends that either of them ever had. It was momentarily shaken when L discovered that A's death was less of suicide and more of B pushing him out a window, but that was beside the point. They were like brothers. Hell, B had even _looked_ just like him. People had mistaken them for twins repeatedly. They had communicated, L having set up a private line that not even Watari knew about just for B's use, though L didn't trust B enough with his location after the two parted ways. L had refused to convict him, at least until the brutal murders in Los Angeles. And now he was dead. No, B wasn't dead. B was murdered. Murdered by Kira.

_It's not fair, just when I found my world,_

_They took you, they broke you, they tore out your heart._

"Beyond…B…I _will_ avenge your death," L swore, closing his ebony eyes. He grit his teeth in a grimace of rage. "Kira…"

_I miss you, you hurt me,_

_You left with a smile._

He stayed in his curled up position for a long time, never raising his head. He stayed like that until he fell into an emotionally exhausted two-hour sleep. It was the last sleep he would get until November.

_Mistaken, your sadness was hiding inside._

_Now all that's left are the pieces to find!_

When the November in question came, L was standing on the roof of the Kira Task Force Headquarters. It was pouring down rain. L was soaked to the skin, but he neither noticed nor cared. He looked at the sky, thinking about the last thing B had said to him before departing the Wammy House. Today was the day. L was not afraid.

_The mystery you kept,_

_The soul behind a guise!_

Light Yagami wandered up to the roof. L turned his head to look at him. "What are you doing standing out there by yourself?" asked Light. L put a hand to his ear as if he couldn't hear Light. When Light repeated himself in a yell, L smiled and did it again. He could tell Light was annoyed as he stepped out into the downpour, but he didn't care. B had used to play that game when he wanted L to come closer to speak with him, but L didn't want to move.

_Where are you? I need you!_

_Don't leave me here on my own!_

"What are you doing, Ryuzaki?" asked Light as he reached L. L looked back up at the sky.

_Speak to me! Be near me!_

_I can't survive unless I know you're with me!_

"Oh, I'm not doing anything in particular, it's just…I hear the bell," replied L thoughtfully. Whenever someone had died, B would always say that they heard the bell. He first said that after A had died.

_Why did you go?_

_All these questions run through my mind._

Light questioned him, and L led him on with talk of the bell, and following with talk about lying, but his mind was elsewhere. Today was the day. L was not afraid. The last thing B had ever said to him before he left the Wammy House was during an argument. "_November 5__th__, 2007! That will be the day you __**die**__, L Lawliet!"_

_I wish I couldn't feel at all._

_Let me be numb! I'm starting to fall!_

L normally would never have believed B, but there were no records of his true name anywhere and nobody knew it except for him and Watari. It was the use of his name that convinced him the most, that and B's morbidly accurate guesstimates of when people around them would die. When it came true, he would look at L's shocked face and laugh his Shinigami laugh. The same laugh he had laughed when he realized his life was at its end.

_Where are you? I need you._

He would have been twenty-four. Five days earlier, he and Watari had had a quiet, secret celebration of L's twenty-fifth birthday. But L had been celebrating B's twenty-fourth instead of his own. And today was the day his twenty-five years would end. A part of him wanted to stay up here, alone in the rain, until his fate came true. But there was still a long way before November 5th was over.

_Don't leave me here on my own!_

He wanted to die alone. Alone like B had died. But against his judgment, he suggested to Light that they go inside.

_Speak to me! Be near me!_

_I can't survive unless I know you're with me!_

L knew it was over the moment he felt the first stabbing pain in his chest. Rem had written his name in the notebook, there was no other possible explanation. He toppled sideways off his chair. Light dove and caught him.

_Where are you!_

Black bordering his vision, he looked up into Light's face. A demonic, triumphant smile twisted his features. L had no doubt. Light Yagami was Kira. At least his last act was finally solving the case, even if he was the only one who knew it. Then, Light wasn't there anymore. Instead it was Beyond, grinning at L. His bloodred eyes with lit up with joy.

_Where_

_Are_

_You?_

"L!" B cried. "I've waited a year for you to join me! Hurry up and get over here!"

_You were smiling._

Maybe it was a hallucination, a figment of his own lasting grief for the most promising boy he had ever met, but at that moment, as he felt his body shut down, he didn't care. As he closed his dark-rimmed eyes for his final sleep, a smile graced his lips.

_You were smiling…_

The last thought of L Lawliet, the greatest detective the world will ever see, was this: _I'm coming, B._

_You were…_

_Smiling…__

* * *

_I'm aware that by the time L died, the Kira case had only been going on for a few months, meaning B would only have been dead for a few months. The reason the B ghost/hallucination said year was because B was convicted after the LA BB Murder Case, which happened a year before Kira showed up. B and L would've been unable to keep contact while B was in prison.

Thank you, Mello, for ending your book by saying that B was killed by Kira, otherwise this would've been completely BSed. I like my cannon.


End file.
